


A Haircut

by winryofresembool



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Canon Divergent, F/M, Haircuts, Picnic, Post Promised Day, as there's no proof of winry actually cutting her hair, just some silly fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-20
Updated: 2019-06-20
Packaged: 2020-05-15 14:03:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19297231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winryofresembool/pseuds/winryofresembool
Summary: Winry cuts her hair. Ed reacts.





	A Haircut

**Author's Note:**

> Long time no fics (again). This…. probably doesn’t /actually/ happen in canon as in all the post promised day shots of Winry she has long hair but I wanted to write this anyway so here we go. I imagine this fic takes place a few months into the boys’ return to Resembool, and Edwin is starting to act a bit coupley. 
> 
> I hope you guys enjoy, and don't forget I really do love 'em comments.

“Did you hear that Annie cut her hair short after breaking up with her boyfriend? I saw her yesterday and I can tell you guys, it doesn’t suit her at all.”

It was an early morning, and Winry was sitting at a small Resembool café with her old friends Nelly and Mary, after deciding to give herself a break from working on her current automail project for a day. Her granny had recommended she should try to bond with her old classmates more now that the whole Promised Day disaster was over and she was allowed to leave the house. However, Winry quite quickly realized it was not a very good idea, in the end.

It had been almost a year since she had last seen either of her friends because of all the traveling, working and hiding. So much had happened during that year, making the emotional gap between her and her Resembool friends wider than she had imagined. Winry supposed it was called growth. She was no longer the same person she had been. Meanwhile, these girls, who knew nothing about the recent events of Amestris, were still in the same spot where they had been when they previously met. They still gossiped shamelessly with no worries about what anyone would think of them, while Winry was already ready to leave the café and never come back. But she decided to try to be patient; maybe they would change the topic soon.

“Really?” Mary asked, pulling Winry back from her frustrated thoughts. “What a shame. Her hair was so pretty. Did she explain why she did that?”

“Yep,” Nelly nodded. “Apparently she had heard some people cut their hair after a big change in their lives, such as a break up. But if you ask me, that’s a liiittle bit overdramatic. I wouldn’t ruin my hair for a boy.” She twirled her long tresses proudly.

There was a loud bang on the table. “OK, I have heard enough,” Winry announced angrily, a venomous expression on her face. “Can you hear how awful you guys sound? What if Annie was talking about you guys the same way? How would you feel about that?”

“I…”

“Uh…”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought too,” Winry hissed. “Annie is allowed to do whatever she wants with her hair. If you guys have nothing better to talk about, I’m gonna go back to my workshop. At least the metals are something I understand.”

Winry rose from her seat and made a dramatic exit that she imagined Ed would have been proud of. She wondered briefly how he would have reacted to the girls’ conversation. Probably the same way she did (except, even more dramatic if possible), she concluded, and continued towards her home.

However, one part of the conversation did stick to her mind: the reason behind Annie’s hair cut. It made her think about her own life and the changes she had gone through. The apprenticeship in Rush Valley. The Promised Day and events that had led to it. A few months ago, she had finally gotten her two best friends back, and things had calmed down notably. She didn’t have to worry about Ed and Al anymore, and she was free to do whatever she wanted. That was a feeling she wasn’t used to, but something told her she should embrace it. She should do something she hadn’t done in a long while, and now she knew what it was.

She would cut her hair short.

Sure, there were also more practical reasons why she wanted to do it: the long hair got easily stuck between the metal plates and joints when she was working on automail, and in the summer heat her ponytail got all sweaty, but more than that, she wanted to see this hair cut as a symbol of the new, more peaceful part of her life. Besides, she smirked to herself, she would definitely love to see her “friends’” expressions when she’d show up at the town center with the short hair. And – a tiny voice spoke inside her – maybe she was also a little bit curious about how a certain golden-haired boy would react. She hoped he wouldn’t hate it even if it was her own opinion that mattered the most.

…

A couple of hours later, Winry stepped out of a hairdresser’s shop. She was sporting an bob cut that was slightly shorter from the back than front and a content smile that was nearly as wide as Ed’s. In her opinion, the cut had been a success and she was quite positive Ed and Al would like it too. Now all she had to do was to go home and see what would happen.

…

“Hello?” Is anyone home?”

Den ran to greet Winry when she opened the door, but to her slight disappointment the boys weren’t anywhere to be seen. She figured they must have been jogging somewhere, working on Al’s stamina. Her granny, however, gave her a couple of compliments about her hair when she found her from the kitchen. Pinako remembered that Winry’s mother had had exactly the same kind of hair cut when she had started dating her son and showed Winry an old photograph of her from that time. In the picture Sara was wearing a blue summer dress that Pinako believed was still in her late son and daughter-in-law’s old room. Winry wanted to see it, leaving her granny to cook and digging into the wardrobe of her mother.

For a moment, Winry felt overwhelmed as she smelled her mother’s dresses and remembered the times when she had seen them on her. After wiping a couple tears from her cheek, she noticed the one she had been looking for and gently took it out of the closet. She tried it on and was happy to notice it fit to her.

The dress in question was a light blue cotton dress, with a long ribbon going around the waist. Its sleeves were short and the hem about knee-length for Winry. She thought it would be quite suitable for the picnic she and the boys had planned for that day; not too fancy but still comfortable for the warm weather. The color also seemed to match her eyes.

The young woman took a look at the clock on the wall and realized it was almost lunch time; Ed and Al would probably come back from their work out session soon. Leaving the blue dress on, she quickly organized the rest of her mother’s dresses back into the closet and went to help her granny to pack the food for the picnic.

“You seem awfully eager about the picnic today,” Pinako noted suddenly as they were filling the basket, taking a look at Winry’s appearance. “Are you sure you are not trying to impress someone?”

“What, who would I need to impress?” she tried casually but blushed a bit nevertheless.

“Winry, I may be old but not blind,” Pinako shook her head but let the topic be.

The boys were waiting in the hall when Winry came there with the picnic basket. At first Ed was more focused on the basket, curious about its contents, but when he turned to see Winry, his mouth went wide open.

“Something’s different about you,” he stammered wisely.

“Well, yeah, brother, she has cut her hair short!” Al said like it should have been the most obvious thing. “Can’t believe how blind you are. Oh, is that a new dress, too, Winry? Both the dress and the hairstyle suit you very well!”

“Thank you, Al! No, it’s my mother’s old dress, but this is the first time I’m using it!” Winry beamed happily, satisfied that at least Al had noticed what was different.

Al nudged Ed on his arm, telling him to say something too.

“Umm… the hair looks… nice?”

“Just nice?” Winry’s happiness turned into disappointment. “You should be happy you won’t be getting so many long hair between your knee joints from now on…”

“Winry, I think when brother says ‘nice’ he means he thinks it’s super pretty,” Al tried to calm her down.

“Oh, well,” Winry sighed. “Anyway, let’s go then.”

On their way to their favorite picnic spot, Winry, who was walking in front of the brothers, felt that she was being stared at the entire time. Her suspicions turned out to be true when she first heard Al whispering something, and Ed, incapable of staying quiet, immediately yelled back: “I’m not staring, I’m just… checking that nothing falls out of the basket!”

“And sheep can fly, brother,” Al snickered back, not having any of it.

Winry smiled contently, glad she had gotten some reaction from Ed after all.

“I’m hoping none of that milk I packed has spilled over, that would be a disaster, wouldn’t it, Ed?” she asked slyly.

“I… what? Why did you pack milk?! Al, she’s crazy.”

“That’s how I know you didn’t actually pay attention to the basket, you would definitely have noticed the milk,” Winry laughed and Ed turned bright red.

“Way to make him silent, Winry!” Al exclaimed and reached to give her a high five.

Ed mumbled something to himself, but the others couldn’t hear what was being said, other than possibly giving a second thought to something.

…

Eventually, the trio reached a spot where they could see all the way to the Resembool lake and spread the sheet on the grass. As an “apology” to Ed for her earlier teasing, Winry sat right next to him and fed him grapes from her hand. Al just watched the two of them with amusement. They still hadn’t made an official “announcement” about dating, but everyone within a 5-mile radius from them knew what was going on.

Ed broke the peaceful silence by asking: “So, why did you cut your hair? I thought you liked the long hair.”

“I did!” Winry answered. “But… You remember Mary and Nelly, right? I heard them mocking someone’s short hair, and… I want to show them that they are wrong.”  
“That sounds like something you would do,” Ed laughed and patted Winry on her head. Then he combed his fingers through her blonde locks to test how it would feel like, a move weirdly intimate for him. Al decided he should let the other two have a moment alone and pointed towards the road: “Oh, look! Mr. Jackman is there with his dog! I should go say I hi to them, I need to thank him for borrowing… um, something. I’ll be right back.”

“OK, Al. Don’t stay too long, the soup will get cold.” Winry said after him.

“So…” Ed grumbled, not sure what to say once they were alone.

“So…”

“It feels so different from earlier,” he stated after twirling a lock of her hair between his fingers. “In a good way!” he responded to Winry’s questioning look. “I mean, my fingers don’t get tangled into it anymore.”

“Silly. I’m glad you are enjoying it that much. But yeah, it’s much easier to take care of now too. And I should be able to inspect your automail more closely too now that it won’t get stuck there.” She winked.

Chills went through Ed’s spine. “Hey! Don’t… talk to me like that here! We’re in public!”

“And could be heard by whom? Mr. Jackman seems to be chatting with Al eagerly and I don’t see anyone else nearby.”

“You really are a bit crazy,” Ed said but pulled her closer to him. “Anyway, why do I think you are not telling me everything about the reason why you cut your hair?”

“Sometimes you’re too curious for your own good, alchemy geek.” Winry gave him a disapproving look.

“C’mon, you can tell me.”

Winry poked her fingers together nervously. “Well, they say that… some people like to get a haircut after they have experienced some big life change…”

“And?” Ed urged her to continue.

“That is kinda why I wanted to do it,” Winry answered. “Because… this situation is new to us. I mean… we… have lost a lot on our journey, but… now we have reached this point. We are safe… and we can do whatever we want, right?”

Ed seemed to think about it for a little while. “Well, when you put it that way… it makes sense. So, what is it that you want to do?”

“I want to become the best automail mechanic I can be! But… right now? This is probably gonna sound lame to you… but I just want to enjoy this moment.”

She snuggled closer to Ed’s arm, waiting for his response.

“Nah, I get what you mean,” he said to Winry’s surprise and wrapped an arm around her. “By the way… I think it suits you.”

“What?”

“Your new hair! I… really do like it.”

“I figured as much,” Winry chuckled, nudging him gently. Before she could get too comfortable on Ed’s lap, though, his stomach started grumbling, telling them it was time to eat.

“We should tell Al to come back as well,” Winry pointed out, nodding towards the two men still talking a few dozen metres away.

“I guess you’re right,” Ed snorted and hid his face into a huge sandwich.


End file.
